March for Our Lives in Washington – March 24th

The recent mass shooting in Parkland, FL, has sparked a groundswell of grassroots reaction. Perhaps because the killings occurred at a high school and not an elementary school, the call to action has gained momentum. High School students are savvy social media users, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students have ignited a renewed demand for stricter gun laws in our country.

Several marches have been scheduled, including the walk out that took place recently in schools across the country.

On March 24, students from Parkland will organize and participate in March for Our Lives in Washington, DC. Other marches are being scheduled across the country.

As many of you know, on March 23, Isabel Dunst was scheduled to be our Shabbat HaGadol guest speaker. Liz is the chair of the Religious Action Center for the Reform Movement (RAC). The RAC will be planning a pre-march gathering – details are being worked out. Liz has rescheduled her time with us for April 20th, the same night our teens will present on the RAC trip in DC they recently experienced.

We have already received inquiries as to what our congregation may be doing. It is my intention to be in Washington for the March. I am planning on renting a van and if we have 6-7 people going it will be cost efficient.

I realize, as with previous marches, some will choose to go to Washington and others will participate in a NYC march.

If you think you would be going to DC, please email Emily Hacker at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Since I will be in Israel until 3/13 Emily is helping to coordinate. In time, the RAC will need to know numbers so they can find an appropriate location to gather close to the starting point of the march. In August, for the 1000 Ministers March, we gathered at the Mandarin Oriental, for speeches and song. I believe the RAC gathering will have similar components plus a brief Shabbat worship service.

If you think you might be interested in the NYC march, let me know as well.

About the author

Rabbi Deborah A. Hirsch joined The Village Temple as our rabbi on July 1, 2016. Though she is a native of Chicago, Rabbi Hirsch has spent her entire rabbinic career in the metro New York area, most recently as senior rabbi at Congregation Shaaray Tefila, where she has served as clergy for the past six years. In 2000, Rabbi Hirsch joined the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), where she was the regional director for the Greater New York Council of Reform Synagogues. In 2003, she became the URJ director of regions and supervised the Union's regional structure throughout North America.
Previously she served as rabbi at East End Temple in Manhattan for 15 years.
She has been active in the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) for many years, serving as finance officer, chair of the Nominating Committee, and chair of the Audit Committee. Rabbi Hirsch has also been a faculty member at Eisner, Crane Lake and Kutz Camps. She was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1982, received her Doctor of Ministry there in 1997, and was later awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the same institution in 2007.